Sabean Hits A New Low

We traded Monell for cash. I’ll guess $25,000. I’m sure that haul will hit the team bank account hard. By the way, beers at AT&T are going up a buck next season……

Now we explore the exciting possibilities of what The Great Peguero might bring us. $50,000? I’m not sure I’m gonna be able to sleep tonight. When I do finally drift off I know what my first dream will be: If we some day ever trade Erik Cordier or Jose de Paula could we possibly net 75K for the both of them? I’ll sleep on the old linens tonight just in case that dream gets out of hand……..

Brian Sabean is now doddering around like an old man muttering to himself at the race track, every now and then picking up losing tickets off the floor and hoping to find a winner. Pathetic……

Like this:

Related

50 Responses

Ah, the natives are restless. With good reason, up to this point. The front office’s “strategy”, up to this point, seems to be “everybody will be better than they were last year”. Well… Hudson will surely be better than Zito. Matt and Timmy, will they be better? Voggy, will he be better? And the offense: the usually discussed suspects (Posey, Pence, Panda), will they be better? You gotta think so… or, at least hope so, and it seems that’s Sabean’s thinking… up to this point. If this was the end of January, I’d be super restless (dismayed, actually). You also just gotta think that Sabes does have something up his sleeve for December. Right? Right??

I think part of the frustration with Sabean is that he pretty much said the same thing in the middle of this past season: “The guys we have need to perform better,” and no big deals were going to be made. It made Sabean seem very passive and accepting of a down year. That’s where an owner could step in and send a message of urgency, but few teams have an “owner” any more. They’re mostly all owned by syndicates and conglomerates, and other corporate mutations. Larry Baer is a kind of messenger between the ownership and Sabean. Baer can speak corporate and he can speak human.

The Peguero and Monell DFAing confirms what we already know. We have shit in the upper minors. There are few position players in this organization worth a damn. The Mac Williamson guy at San Jose is now the next “hope” for a power bat. Really? I’m not holding my breath. We better hope that the Dodgers get hit hard again early and often by the injury bug next season. Not to mention the Dbacks should be upgraded. So far, like zumiee says, the Baer/Sabes plan seems to be trot out the same team again, and hope they do better in 2014. Oh, and raise beer prices. Even I could do that as GM…

As I recall, Loo’s all in for the Chiefs, a team that I disliked as a kid but who always had cool players. I got some return fire once from him for dissing Hank Stram. I’m glad they’re competitive again, and anyone that beats any Manning team is fine with me.

Good one wswins. I still remember when Sabean defended himself in a press conference, dismissing his critics as a “lunatic fringe.” Afterwards, I remember some fans took up “lunatic fringe” as a rallying cry, printing up t-shirts with the phrase and wearing them to the ballpark. Fast forward today, this is what Sabes has accomplished during his tenure:

The Giants have won two World Series (2010, 2012), three National League pennants (2002, 2010, 2012), five National League West Division flags (1997, 2000, 2003, 2010, and 2012), a National League Wild Card (2002), and forced a National League Wild Card tie-breaker game with Chicago in 1998. On two other occasions, the club was eliminated from post season contention on the last day of the season. He has guided the club to five post season berths—the club’s most in an 11-season span since 1915–25. As of July 13, 2007, Sabean owns the ninth-highest winning percentage (.544, 927–777) among all general managers since 1950.

Listen up Flappers – It’s still early in the Hot Stove season. More important, even if Sabes doesn’t do anything in the off season (which I doubt will happen), he still has a bye for the next 10 years in my opinion. In short, Sabean is THE BEST GM IN MLB and anyone who considers themselves part of the “lunatic fringe,” will be proved wrong again.

This is gonna sound heretical, but really LF doesn’t bother me all that much. It doesn’t have to be a power position at all. Blanco brings speed versatility and good D, important characteristics for any OF at ATT, and his OB was .340 last year, damned decent. I do wish he stole more bases.
Let’s be real–SF won 2 titles without the likes of Ellsbury or Choo (and 2012 Pence hit like shit here), and those guys aren’t coming here. I thought Kieschnik sucked, and with Peguero gone that means Perez could get a shot–he’s another great defender and runs well, showed some occasional pop tho not a lot of plate discipline.
Anyone Sabes brings in as potential platoon guy is gonna have issues–injury plagued down season, doesn’t run/defend well, K’s a lot, pop but low avg., etc. Hey, sometime these guys work out—Burrell was on scrap heap and SF got Ross off waivers. The bigger issues are the rest of regulars, the ones that are supposed to shoulder the load of getting SF back on top, not the Blancos of the world.
Sabes has stolen so many pieces of even the current puzzle let alone who he acquired 2010 to get too far down on the guy in Dec.

Not heretical at all, Willie. Paul’s questions get at the heart of the matter: how probable is it that any or most of the players who underperformed last year are going to be better this year? Will Pence repeat his numbers or Belt take it to another level? The Giants will need everything to go right next year to even be in contention. They will have to reverse a 3 year decline in pitching performance. The 2012 numbers are, I think, a best case scenario for the roster as now constructed, with a top flight offense and a middle of the pack pitching staff. Another 20-30 runs of production in LF would make that overall scenario more likely, but I don’t think it will be a deciding factor.

My take is that 4 question marks among the SPs are making an 78-82 win season more probable than 88-92.

For me, the memories of 2010 and 2012 did not make a September out of contention any more interesting or palatable. Call me crazy.

Blade, so far what is it that has you convinced the Giants should do better in 2014 than the 76 wins in 2013? Huddy is the only difference in the cast of characters. Is he worth 5 more Ws? 7? Is it Pagan being back the whole year, hopefully?…

Read my 11:03am post. Look, you can continue to imagine that Horace Stoneham and Spec Richardson are sitting in the GM’s office, but those morons left years ago snarkk. Pagan is only one of the players that I suspect will do better next year. Posey, Crawford, Lincecum, Cain, Vogie, and Panda all had down years. Common denominator besides them have down years? They all are relatively young, exception of Vogie (Pagan is still a stud as he showed when he returned). Consequently, even if half of them improve on last season, we are good to go.

Hey, you obviously think Sabean is an idiot. I beg to differ. Again, read my 11:03am post and it will remind you of how fortunate we are to have Sabean. Just my take, but I suspect you’ve become greedy with our success since Sabes has been with us. Me? I savor this time, especially in lieu of the barren 1970s and 1980s.

You mean Spec left? I don’t think Sabes is an idiot. But, he is a very reactive GM. Not proactive. That’s why he likes to make moves midseason, though he said last year he hated that time of the year. Strange. Anyway, the odds would indicate that the same characters next year will do somewhat better at the plate. Hopefully. According to Kruk, they won’t be “gassed” after a long postseason. They can’t all have two bad seasons in a row. I get that. But, I think hoping that will be enough, along with Huddy hopefully being half a dozen games better than Zito, is whistling in the dark. The total staff pitching still is unlikely to be as good as 2012. So, that gets you a lot of hope, and about 85 or 86 wins, and that’s not enough. More punch in the OF would be a real plus…

I think James is onto something. Hoping that everybody rights their batting ship for 2014 is a pretty tall order. Even Sabes probably knows that. He’ll get some new body into LF as a platooner before ST is over. Probably a semi or full on has been, but new to the Giants. Starting pitching with the same guys except Huddy on board instead of Zito may help the starting ERA go down a 1/4 point? We can hope, unless Voggy craters, then it will be Petit probably. Sabes will wait until summertime to make any major in-flight corrections. That’s his MO…

Gee James, a 2 game improvement? Even with the cast of characters we had last season, I am going with wswins comment, “Did they play like a losing team last September when the guys were back?” More important, it seems like everyone has forgotten that the Giants had a winning record against ALL NL West teams last season. I stand by what I said previously, in Sabes I trust. He’s earned that much . . .

Well good to see the dormers and the level headed ones posting. I still hate picking up old guys. Hudson is Zito. No doubt about it. If he goes .500 in the win/loss, I will be proven correct. Ollie I agree with your comment about Blanco and LF, as long as it is not a platoon with someone. Put him out there everyday!! F the rest of them! Looking for someone to go on a hot streak is not a good strategy,IMO. We are not playing craps here.

Saying Hudson=Zito is asinine. Think of how zitbomb taxed the pen on the road. He was a joke last yr. Hudson for Zito could mean at least 6-8 wins just because he’ll keep them in the game and go 6-7 innings consistently.

Like I said if Hudson only goes .500, which is what Zito did over his whole career with the Giants, I will be proven correct. IMO Hudson has to have 2 winning seasons to make this a good signing. And I don’t mean 1 game over .500 to have a winning season!!

I think if we all just lowered our expectations a bit, and conceded the NL West to the Dodgers, we could all agree that with a little luck our Giants could capture one of the two WC spots this year. We don’t even come close to matching up with the boys in blue when it comes to, well, everything. Except coaching. Bochy is the best.

But we have Timmy, Huddy and Vogey as our 3-4 and 5? Our middle of the lineup is better then that.
Oops.

I’m not claiming to be a basketball genius, but there’s no way the Kings can win close games with Isaiah Thomas on the court at the end of games. He’s an erratic turnover machine and inconsistent shooter, and lousy on defense. Bonehead move having him in there at the end tonight vs. Warriors.
—–
The New England Patriots, one of the cheating-est teams in the NFL, had zero penalties called on them today. Zero.
It’s like the NFL has a serious romance with the Patriots.
I got a kick out of New England’s three straight pick plays on passing plays to get a quick touchdown at the start of the second half last week. You’d think the refs would see one of the three pick plays at least, but no, somehow they didn’t.
Not to mention all the times the New England DBs hold the other team’s receivers.

Zum, I’ll give you this–since he had scored both of the last two times he touched the ball Cousins ideally should have touched it last time down. Thomas could have pulled up after he drove and shot quicker so that even if he missed Sac had a chance at an O board. Imo he didn’t have anywhere to go with Bogut waiting for him.
even still, with curry and Thompson lighting them up, GS was fortunate to walk away with a W. Kings had a nice comeback, Patterson and Thornton had nice games, at least on offense. Not enough depth yet, tho.

Zum, here’s the deal with Thomas – For the second time in as many years, he had to work his way out of his coach’s doghouse, as Keith Smart (last season) did not seem willing to hand the keys to the team over to him early in the season . . . Fast forward to the second time in as many years, Thomas eventually broke out and became an offensive force, as he averaged 17.3 points and 5.4 assists per game after the All-Star break. The Kings’ offseason brought a mixed bag of news for Thomas, as Smart was replaced as head coach, while Thomas may have been permanently replaced as the starting point guard with the acquisition of Greivis Vasquez. LOL . . . Currently, Vasquez and him are fighting for minutes and more important, who gets to “drive” the Sac car. My money is on Vasquez. That being said, in the world of FL, they are both losing propositions. FL is all about minutes and the proverbial “6th man” is near worthless in FL.

Damn man, after reading some of these posts I see that on December 1st, the Giants are already toast. It sounds like many of you got into a bad batch of Makers, may I suggest Bulleit instead? Yeah, I might be tipping the Orange and Black Gatorade but I see this team as a LFer and a few bench guys away from being NL champs and back into the WS. Yeah, I could be way off, but I’m going to at least wait until the All Star break before I write the Giants or anyone else off.

I watched a biography of Steve McQueen and apparently, him and the other up and coming stars in the Magnificent Seven were jealous of Brynner’s place in the Hollywood hierarchy at that time, albeit, Yul didn’t really know how to shoot a gun and Steve taught him a couple of slick moves during the shooting of the movie.

Nip, funny you should mention that. In the biography, he made that TV show, Wanted Dead Or Alive . . . During the shooting, his horse stepped on him and he got so pissed off, that he cold cocked the horse. Tough guy you didn’t want to mess with.

Comments are closed.

3 in 5

2012 World Series Ring

2010 World Series Ring

Blog Stats

1,263,499 All Time Flap Hits

Post of the Day!

wilcojoe said, on March 25, 2015 at 6:41 am (Edit)
Major props to the Warriors. The last time they won the division, I wasn’t quite born. I made my debut during the 76 World Series. I am with you 100% on the NBA. As a kid during the Run TMC days, my excitement for the team probably paralleled that of the Giants. The national media says a Warriors home game is the most raucous in the NBA. I would love to catch a game there today.